September Shaping Up As A Rebound Month For Car Sales
TROY (WWJ) -- It looks like car sales are starting to pull out of their summer slump. Figures from J.D. Power and Associates show a fairly strong first two weeks of September.
"We're seeing sales are picking up," said Jeff Schuster, Power's director of global forecasting. "We're looking for volume and numbers that are stronger than we saw in August."
September Car Sales Picking Up
INTERVIEW: We talk with Jeff Schuster of J.D. Power and Associates about September car sales.
J.D. Power, which gets transaction data from 8900 dealerships, expects September sales to be about ten per cent stronger than last year. September is expected to see the best sales numbers since April, right before the shortage of products from Japan started to impact dealerships.
Those showrooms are starting to become re-stocked with products. The marketing around that, says Schuster, tends to help other brands as well.
"You tend to see when there's more activity, even when it's from one manufacturer, it tends to be a benefit to the entire industry."
Many analysts have expected September to be the start of a series of stronger sales months. Sales may even trend above normal for a few months, as customers who had been on the sidelines over the summer, commit to a purchase.
"It certainly has been a roller coaster ride through the summer months," said Schuster. "I think the industry and buyers are looking for some stability here, and continue to see some upward movement as we head into 2012."
J.D. Power is still expecting the industry to sell 12.6 million units this year, a nine per cent increase from 2010. They expect sales to jump to 14.1 million units in 2012.
But the fragile recovery brings with it a lot of uncertainty.
"The uncertain global environment, specifically the debt troubles in Europe, continue to be the major source of downside risk in the U.S. economy and automotive markets," said John Humphrey, senior vice president of automotive operations at J.D. Power and Associates, in a statement. "Until a level of stability is reached globally and consumer confidence is returned, the U.S. automotive selling pace is not expected to return to pre-recession levels."
Connect with Jeff Gilbert
Email: jdgilbert@cbs.com
Twitter: @jefferygilbert
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